VolleyballMag.com Tabs Long Beach State Recruiting Class No. 1 in the Nation

VolleyballMag.com Tabs Long Beach State Recruiting Class No. 1 in the Nation

5/15/2020 10:25:00 AM | Men's Volleyball

The highly touted recruiting class includes seven incoming freshmen, including Clarke Godbold who was ranked the top recruit in the country last month

By: Lindy Zamora, Associate Athletic Communications Director

Complete VolleyballMag.com Release

LONG BEACH, Calif. – VolleyballMag.com announced its recruiting class rankings on Thursday, and Long Beach State topped the list. The Beach, which won the 2018 and 2019 NCAA National Championships and were 10-1 in 2020, bring in a solid core of incoming freshmen to enhance an already dangerous roster.

The VolleyballMag.com rankings are voted on by an elite panel of NCAA Division I-II coaches and recruiting coordinators, and includes incoming freshmen, transfers, as well as international players.

LBSU garnered just more than four out of every five first-place votes in the polling as the Beach held a 29-voting point edge over UCLA which checked in at No. 2.

The Beach's talented recruiting class is headlined by outside hitter Clarke Godbold who was ranked the top recruit in the country last month by the same publication. Additionally, VolleyballMag.com selected five of Long Beach State's seven recruits to the Boys Fab 50 rankings.

"We have added two of the top outside hitters in the class and the No. 1 recruit overall," LBSU head coach Alan Knipe told VolleyballMag.com. "We have two very athletic and dynamic middle blockers, a big time opposite from the German national team, a very well-rounded outside hitter/setter-opposite, and a solid libero."

In addition to Godbold (6-5, OH, Peninsula HS, Palos Verdes, Calif., SCVC), who was just selected to the 2020 Men's Junior National Training Team, the Beach also bring in Nato Dickinson (6-7, RS-OH, Corona del Mar HS, Newport Beach, Calif., Pinnacle), Matthew Iamaleava (6-6, MB, Long Beach Poly HS, Long Beach, Calif., Rockstar), Caden Jackson (6-0, Libero, Dana Hills HS, Dana Point, Calif., 949 VBC), Noah Robin (6-7, MB, Huntington Beach HS, Huntington Beach, Calif., Pinnacle), Sebastian Rodriguez (6-5, OH, Redondo Union HS, Redondo Beach, Calif., Balboa Bay), and Simon Torwie (6-10, RS, Carl-Von-Weinberg-Schule, Frankfurt, Germany, German Youth National Team).

The highly-touted recruiting class will join an already strong and talented squad which will return four AVCA All-Americans in freshman libero Mason Briggs, junior opposite Simon Andersen, sophomore middle blocker Shane Holdaway, and junior setter Carlos Rivera.